Conductor terminals are known in a variety of forms, for example as box terminals, circuit board terminals, series terminals or as conductor terminals in other electrical apparatuses.
DE 299 15 515 U1 discloses a spring clip for connecting electrical conductors to an insulating material housing, which has a terminal with a clamping spring cooperating with a bus bar piece. An actuation element in the form of a cam lever is integrated in the insulating material housing and is mounted rotatably in the insulating material housing. The axis of rotation of the cam lever is arranged substantially perpendicularly above the clamping point. This leads to a relatively large installation height.
A terminal having a spring-loaded clamping connection and an actuation lever is known from DE 87 04 494 U1, in which the actuation lever is mounted pivotably via its axis of rotation behind the clamping point below the clamping spring, as considered in the conductor insertion direction. An actuation tab is bent at the free clamping limb end and cooperates with an actuation finger of the actuation lever in order to open the spring-loaded clamping connection.
EP 1 622 224 B1 discloses a terminal having an actuation lever, which is mounted rotatably in a bend of a bus bar. The clamping point between clamping spring end and bus bar is provided below the axis of rotation.
The actuation lever is arranged with an actuation portion in the clamping space bordering the conductor insertion opening
DE 20 2009 010 003 U1 presents a connection terminal having a separating lever with pivot means for pivoting a connection spring with respect to a bus bar piece. The separating lever is mounted on a cavity, formed by the bus bar piece, for forming the pivot axis, such that, by means of an actuation finger to be acted on by hand with a lever actuation force and by means of a contact portion for actuating the clamping spring, a lever arm pivotable about the axis of rotation therebetween is formed.
Furthermore, a terminal having an insulating material housing, a bus bar portion and having at least one spring clamping unit with a clamping spring is described in 10 2010 024 809 A1. The clamping spring has an actuation portion, which proceeds from a clamping portion and which extends away from the direction of the spring force of the clamping spring acting at the clamping portion, and is oriented for application by a pivotably mounted actuation lever, such that the actuation lever applies a tensile force to the actuation portion, said tensile force acting counter to the spring force, in order to open the clamping spring.
Proceeding on this basis, the object of the present invention is to create an improved conductor terminal, which can be constructed so as to be as small as possible, having an insulating material housing and having at least one spring-loaded clamping connection in the insulating material housing and also having at least one actuation element, which is pivotably accommodated in the insulating material housing and is designed to open in each case at least one associated spring-loaded clamping connection. The conductor terminal will also be optimized in view of the influence of force of the actuation element on the insulating material housing and the force transmission of the lever pivot force, applied externally to the actuating element, to the actuation force, which acts on the clamping spring.
The object is achieved by the conductor terminal having the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments are described in the dependent claims.